Research has found that employers are increasingly positive about hiring and retaining older workers.

A Monash University survey of 600 Queensland employers revealed that many of them were more interested in hiring older workers than younger ones from overseas.

Monash University Professor Phillip Taylor says 40 per cent of private sector bosses said they were targeting over-55s to tackle labour shortages.

In comparison, just 18 per cent of public sector employers were interested in recruiting migrants.

"In the past, particularly in the 80s [and] the 90s, the economic downturns of that period, employers were looking to rid themselves of older workers," he said.

"This is the first time we've found significant interest in employing older workers."

Professor Taylor says workforce ageing is an immediate concern for many employers.

But he concedes that ageism still exists.

"There are a couple of flies in the ointment, an apparent disinterest among employers in retraining older workers," he said.

"Perhaps that says that they are not viewing older workers as a long-term employment prospect but maybe instead it is a stop gap in the short-term."

The president of non-profit organisation Older People Speak Out says there is no doubt that an older worker is more reliable.

Val French welcomes any positive shift in attitudes to older workers, but says age-based discrimination is responsible for the high number of older unemployed Australians.

"In all the research that we have done, there is a great desire amongst older workers to remain in the workforce and unemployed older workers to return to the workforce," she said.

"They like to think of themselves at 50 as still 40 at heart and most of the evidence shows that 40 is the old 30, that 50 is the old 40.

"Certainly people in their 60s are feeling very strongly that they need to stay in the workforce and baby boomers do have a lot of debts and it is going to be far more difficult for them to retire financially."

Council on the Ageing Victorian director Sue Hendy says employers and their human resources managers still need to do more to encourage the participation of older people in the workforce.

"People are still telling us they are finding it hard, they don't know that they should put their age on [resumes]," she said.

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